The present invention relates to anti-vehicle barriers and, more particularly, to displaceable temporary barriers which can be placed on the roadway in order to prevent access by vehicles or to promptly disable any vehicles which attempt to cross the barriers.
It is sometimes desired to block off the passage of vehicles to and/or from certain areas. This can be accomplished by a variety of techniques, including through the erection of permanent obstacles, such as concrete barriers, and the like. However, in certain cases, it is desired to erect obstacles which are temporary in nature and which can be quickly and easily deployed and removed. For example, the police often have need to set up temporary roadblocks to channel and control the flow of traffic so as to better effect the inspection of the vehicles and/or the drivers, or for other purposes.
Such roadblocks may, for example, be set up using a series of appropriately placed barrels or other obstacles. A more sophisticated roadblock may include one or more barriers members, each of which typically consists of a metal frame bearing upwardly-directed metal spikes. The barriers are placed in suitable locations on the roadway and serve to puncture the tires of any vehicle whose driver ignores warnings and directions and drives the vehicle over the barriers.
While such mechanisms are effective, they call for the use of rigid and relatively heavy metal contraptions which are difficult to store, cumbersome and dangerous to deploy and time-consuming to remove. Often, these barriers get damaged when a vehicle is driven over them and therefore need to be replaced.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, an anti-vehicle barrier, such as might be useful for roadblocks which would effectively puncture the tires of a vehicle driven over it. The barrier would be foldable, or stackable, for easy storage, it would be lightweight and modularized for easy deployment and removal, such deployment would be safe and non-hazardous to the operating personnel, and the barrier would be reusable.